[Disclaimer: I do not own anything Joss Whedon created, much as I'd like to own Spike...]
Author's Note:
Back by popular demand!
Well...sorta, anyway.
I was toying with a sequel anyway, but when I saw a few reviews (okay, all the reviews of chapter seven I've got so far) that wanted me to write the sequel, I figured, let's stop toying with it and actually start writing it.
C/G isn't my usual pairing, as you who read my work will know already. I usually have C/A and G/A(nya).
I just liked the way the C/G pairing meant my story could end. Well, now I'll have to explore it just that little bit more.
Okay, there will be no B/A in my story. Nor will there be any B/S. I have decided on pairings, and refuse to change my mind.
History Always Repeats Itself
Summary: Sequel to 'Surprise!', mildly AU. Annabelle Giles fell through a portal into a reality she doesn't belong in. Her moviestar mom and Watcher dad are frantic back home, but Annabelle's busy making her presence felt in the world of the Liam family.
Chapter One: Realities Collide
by Adele Elisabeth
"So...if your mom is my mom, but not my mom, and your dad is Uncle Rupert...that makes you and me half-sisters." Genevieve Liam informed the little girl on the sofa.
Half an hour ago, Annabelle Giles, five-years-old, fell through a portal during a demon attack and landed in the Liam family's living room. This was the girl she used to hear about sometimes, Genevieve, who had fallen through a similar portal when she was Annabelle's age, into Annabelle's world.
Annabelle didn't like Genevieve's world.
On the upside, she still got to call Cordelia 'Mommy', and she had a new brother and sister. But they weren't really her family, and she wanted to go home. Daddy promised to take her to London in the summer.
"You look just like I did at your age," the fourteen-year-old commented. "Except your eyes are blue. Looks kind of weird. Y'know, tan skin, brown hair -- blue eyes. Must get it from Uncle Rupert."
"Daddy says my eyes are pretty." Annabelle offered, her first words since she told them who she was.
"He's right." Owen had joined them. "And who exactly are you, and who is your daddy?"
"Annabelle Elizabeth Giles, and my daddy is Rupert Giles, and my mommy is Cordelia Giles." Annabelle rattled off. "Daddy calls me Bella, and Mommy calls me Anna." She squinted at Genevieve. "Genevieve keeps calling me A.B."
"Well, Gen spends too much time with Aunt Faith." Owen flopped down next to the little girl. "Let me guess, alternate reality girl?"
"How did you know?"
"Same thing happened to Gen, ages ago. Freaky sh--stuff."
"I know. Mommy and Daddy were there."
"Really? Cool. Y'want some ice-cream? Mom's in the other room, talking to Dad -- I bet she's telling him about you. Anyway, Mom and Dad are busy, so we can go eat ice-cream. If we get in trouble, just say I'm a bad influence on ya."
"Ice-cream?" Annabelle perked up.
"Yup."
"With sprinkles?"
"You betcha."
"And chocolate sauce?"
"Gallons of it."
"Whipped cream?"
"You want it, you got it."
"You're the best not-really-my-brother ever!" Annabelle squealed, and followed Owen into the kitchen like a puppy.
Genevieve stared after them, incredulous. Owen Liam -- good with kids. Umm, excuse me? This was Owen we're talking about, right? Bi-zarre.
"Yes, this is he."
"Cordelia, have you been drinking?"
"You're telling me a little girl just landed in your living room, from an alternate reality where you and I are married. Pardon me for being skeptical."
"Okay, okay, okay, I surrender. We'll be there tomorrow afternoon. By the way, what's her name?"
"Annabelle. That's..."
"No, I'm fine, don't worry."
"Nothing's the matter. It just...surprised me."
"A name can be very surprising at times, Cordelia."
"Annabelle was my little sister's name, all right? She died when she was about six or so. I was ten at the time, I believe."
"It's not sad, it's life."
"All right, it's sad too."
"Unlike you Americans, we in England are not obsessed with therapy."
"Yes, you can take that as a no."
"If you are quite finished, Ms Liam?"
"I do not sound like Wesley!"
"What did you just call me?"
"You bloody did, I heard you."
"I refuse to be compared to Spike!"
"Cordelia, stop sniggering this instant."
"All right. We'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, I will tell the others."
"Firstly, yes, that does include Buffy, and secondly, you and Buffy really are quite alike, when you think about it."
"Well, that's what you get for comparing me to Spike. Goodbye Cordelia."
"Giles and Anya will be here tomorrow." Cordelia announced.
Faith had been showing Annabelle the correct way to hold a stake, and teaching the little tyke some generic self-defense. However, she lost Annabelle's attention at mention of Giles. "Daddy is coming here? I mean, notDaddy."
"Yes, he'll arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon." Cordelia nodded. After a beat, she added, "And Anya."
"Auntie Anya, Auntie Willow's girlfriend? I like her."
They all choked a bit on that one.
(Okay, Faith was sniggering, but that's just her)
"What? Auntie Anya says most demons are bi--bi--they bat for both teams." Annabelle defended.
"Bat for both teams? Who taught you that one, kiddo?" Faith inquired lazily.
"You did, Auntie Faith."
"That makes sense."
"Mommy says you are incorrigible."
"She could be right."
"You said that last time I told you, too."
"What if she doesn't like me?" Anya asked her husband, anxiously. It had been weighing on her mind. She didn't mind that in a different reality, he was married to somebody else, or that his alternate reality self's daughter was here.
She was just worried that Giles's daughter wouldn't like her.
"Don't be daft, Anya, of course she'll like you." Giles reassured her, tracing circles in the small of her back. "Why wouldn't she?" Giles had to admit, he was a little worried about much the same thing -- would she like him?
"Well, we're about to find out." Anya took a deep breath, and walked into the Hyperion.
"Auntie Anya, Da--" Annabelle faltered. What did she call him now? "I guess I should call you Uncle Rupert, huh?"
"I really don't mind what you call me." Giles assured her. "What do you call Cordelia?"
"Mommy."
"Then I suppose I can live with you calling me Daddy."
"Okay."
"You know me?" Anya asked, curiously.
"Of course I do, Auntie Anya. You and Auntie Willow live really close to me and Mommy and Daddy."
"I live with Willow?"
"You got married in your demon religion." Annabelle told her cheerfully. "It was like Catholicism, but with demons. It was pretty recent, too. I was the flower girl."
Anya paused to take this in, and then nodded. "Was it a nice wedding?"
"Anya...!"
"Hush, Rupert, I'm talking to her now." Anya told her husband, sitting next to Annabelle on the sofa. "Was it?"
"It was the best wedding I've ever been to." Okay, it was the only wedding she'd ever been to. But still.
"Did I have bridesmaids? Did Willow?"
"Well, you had Auntie Hallie, and Auntie Willow had Auntie Buffy, and Mommy. Daddy gave Auntie Willow away, and your old boss -- D'Hoffryn? Something like that -- gave you away."
Anya nodded. She and Annabelle were getting on like a house on fire. One question... "Do you like money?"
"I like the smell of it, and I like counting money. Sometimes you let me help you in the Magic Box. That's the magic-shop you and Auntie Willow own."
Meanwhile, Giles was talking quietly to Cordelia and Angel. "This is rather like what happened with Genevieve, isn't it?"
"We had noticed that." Angel observed drily.
"Annabelle seemed to know what we were talking about when I mentioned it. She wouldn't have been there, but evidently it's been mentioned since then to her." Cordelia told the Englishman.
"It's the sort of thing that would stick in someone's memory, I suppose." Giles nodded, slowly.
"I would imagine so. It certainly stuck in ours." Cordelia ran a hand through her hair.
"Indeed."
"What are we going to do?" Angel asked, the question on everyone's mind.
"Try and find a way to send her home." Giles answered immediately. "I expect her parents are trying to find a way to get her home, too. They must be frantic."
In The 'Giles' reality
'Frantic' did not do Cordelia Giles justice.
Willow had had to take her home, and she was currently sleeping peacefully. And yes, it was a magic induced sleep, but they didn't know what else to do, and had asked permission first.
"Giles? Cordy's safe and sound, and sleeping." Willow told the exhausted ex-Watcher, as she walked back into the Magic Box.
"Good, good." He mumbled distractedly.
Anya took Willow aside. "He keeps falling asleep on his books. Unfortunately, he keeps waking back up again. We should do something."
"I can't do anything without his permission." Willow reminded her, keeping her voice down so Giles didn't hear them.
"I know, I know...but if he and Cordy go on like this, they'll burn out and what'll Annabelle come home to? He needs to sleep just as much as she does."
"If he goes to sleep again, I'll see he stays that way until morning." Willow said, finally. "Is Buffy back yet?"
"She called about half an hour ago, said she's going to be a while longer. I think she said something about a late night sale, and I know Niamh pinched Wesley's credit card, and Faith had Spike's wallet last time I saw her."
"Isn't it kind of sad how everybody seems to have paired off except for Buffy?"
"Angel hasn't, and neither has Xander." Anya corrected her wife.
"Well, anyway."
"And Buffy doesn't seem to mind very much. She's pretty happy, as far as I can see."
"Yeah. What is sad is her and Angel not working out."
"That relationship was doomed anyway. Vampire, slayer? So not going to work."
"Can you say, Faith and Spike?"
Anya flicked her fingers derisively. "Spike's got no soul, he's still a decent guy. Angel gets a happy and he turns into Mr Sarcastic And Murderous."
"Spike can be pretty scary when he wants to be."
"Yeah, but he purrs like a big bleached blond kitten when Faith's around."
"Point taken. I think we've kind of strayed from what we were originally talking about..."
"Right, right, Giles. Oooh, look, he's sleeping. Zap 'im, Will!"
"Anya...!"
"Sorry."
Willow did her spell, and Giles yawned, stirred, and slept peacefully. The two women carried him (with some difficulty) into the back room and laid him on the mats. Anya went to find a blanket.
"...look at me like that, Wes, it didn't cost that much." Niamh crossed her arms and pouted. "Besides, you liked it, too."
Wesley had to concede that. "But where on earth will you wear it?"
"I have friends around and about, I'm bound to need a good dress to party in every now and again." Niamh put the bag down on the sofa. "Anyway, I could have sworn you wanted to talk to me about Annabelle going AWOL through a portal."
"Ah. Yes. Right." Wesley nodded, and resisted the urge to wipe his glasses. He was not turning into Giles, dammit. "She's in an alternate reality--"
"Honey, I know that part. Skip to the good bits."
Wesley chose to ignore her interruption. "You, being a siren, can control magic with song--"
"I can see where this is going, and I'm not liking it, Wes."
"Niamh, Willow could do the spell herself, but she's a whole lot more likely to die trying than you are. Nearly 400 years of experience counts for a lot, and the near-immortal thing counts for even more."
"So, you want me to go surfing through realities to find Annabelle?"
"In a word, yes."
"I know I'm going to regret this, but okay." Niamh paused, and then grinned. "And if I do, I get to go shopping and you get to not complain. At all. No matter what."
Wesley gave in.
And, meanwhile, in the 'Liam' Reality...
Annabelle Elizabeth Giles was sulking.
You see, in this reality, things were...different. Far too different.
For one thing, Auntie Faith and Auntie Niamh had swapped boyfriends. Or at least, that's how Annabelle put it.
When Faith and Niamh realised that this meant in Annabelle's world, Niamh was dating Wesley and Faith was dating Spike, they'd fallen in a heap of hysterical laughter. Nobody was entirely sure why, but evidently that amused them.
She also didn't like the fact that this Mommy and Auntie Buffy seemed to hate each other. Annabelle was used to Mommy and Auntie Buffy being best of friends, with Auntie Willow and Uncle Xander.
Then there was Mister Angel. She liked Mister Angel, both of them. The one who was her Uncle Angel, and was one of her Mommy's best friends, and she liked this Mister Angel. Even if he was this strange Mommy's husband.
But he was really...different.
Everything was just too different to poor little Annabelle. (Okay, except for Auntie Faith and Auntie Niamh and Auntie Anya. Nothing ever changed them)
"Annabelle?" it was the new Mommy. She looked up, with a faint sigh.
"Yup?"
Cordelia sat down next to the little girl, and was silent for a few moments, and Annabelle was about to say something, when she began to speak. "Annabelle...I know this must be all very confusing, but it'll be okay. Everything will work out in the end."
"This isn't just a story, Mommy." Annabelle pointed out. "The good guys don't always win, like they do on TV."
"I guess they don't. But I bet we could give those silly TV characters a run for their money, huh?"
"My real Mommy is a movie star, you know." Annabelle confided. "She's been in a couple of movies. One of them was about vampires and stuff, too, and it was called 'Prey'. Mommy says I can see it when I'm older. She was in this other movie, too, and I got a part in it as well. And sometimes there are reporters that come and ask Mommy questions and they did a special on TV about her, and it was called 'The Real Cordy Chase'."
Cordelia couldn't help but be a little jealous of her other self, but she smothered it quickly. "How does she find the time for all the Sunnydale stuff and Hollywood?"
"Well, she's a very private person, and she doesn't 'live in the media', like other stars. She's stayed in Sunnydale with Daddy and everybody, and only goes away for movies every now and again, and sometimes I get to go with her. It's not like she's the Slayer." Annabelle was pretty worldly for a her age. (Apparently she was seven, just a small seven).
"You said that 'TV special' was about 'Cordy Chase', but your last name is Giles and she's married...?"
"Silly. That's her movie star name. People look for Cordy Chase, so they don't pay any attention in the phone book to 'R&C Giles'. We were all in the TV special, though, and it was cool. I have a video of it."
"I wish I could have seen it." Cordelia commented.
Annabelle looked at her, innocent smile on her face. "It's in my back-pack, the one I was wearing when I fell through the portal thingie."
"Really? What say you and me go and watch it, hmmm? Maybe it'll give you a little bit of your real Mommy to hold onto until we get you home."
Annabelle grinned up at her, and they went hand-in-hand from the room.
***
Author's Note:
This story is years after 'A Different World' as well as 'Surprise!'. I know, I've been neglecting 'A Different World', but I promise the next chapter of that story will be up before the next of this.
Review!